If you are looking for a new graphics card, you might have heard about the new RTX series of cards from NVIDIA. These new cards feature a unique AI technology known as ray tracing. The RTX is a proprietary technology developed by NVIDIA to harness the power of ray tracing in computer 3D graphics. It uses a combination of traditional shader cores and RT cores to create a new generation of performance graphics cards.
RTX is a proprietary technology made by NVIDIA to harness the power of ray tracing in computer 3D graphics
NVIDIA RTX is a powerful visual computing platform that brings two new lines of GPUs and a suite of technologies designed to enable real-time ray-traced rendering. By harnessing the power of ray tracing in computer 3D graphics, RTX brings real-time cinematic quality rendering to content creators. It also codifies the latest generation of cross-platform standards for 3D graphics, bringing a new level of realism and beauty to 3D rendering.
Ray tracing is a rendering technique that simulates shadow effects and lighting. Using ray tracing, the intensity of the GPU can be fine-tuned to produce contact shadows, diffuse lighting, or any other type of lighting effect. Compared to screen-space reflections, ray-traced lighting results in more realistic scenes.
There are several components of RTX, including DLSS, Tensor Cores, and RTXDI. DLSS is an AI technology that allows the NVIDIA GPUs to create additional high-quality frames, while also improving framerate. DLSS is powered by fourth-generation Tensor Cores, and provides best-in-class responsiveness, accuracy, and aim precision for competitive games.
Tensor Cores are the same hardware that powers artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning super sampling. DLSS is a revolutionary breakthrough in AI-powered graphics that increases performance and framerate, while also delivering the best-in-class image quality. DLSS is available on all GeForce RTX 40 and Quadro RTX 5000 series GPUs.
The Quadro RTX 8000 is designed for high-end rendering, with 48GB of GDDR6 memory. This GPU also supports the NVLink technology, which allows you to store 96GB of memory on your desktop. You can even edit 8K video with NVLink.
RTXDI is an SDK that integrates with the NVIDIA Real-Time Denoiser to speed up ray tracing and provide photorealistic lighting for indoor scenes. RTXDI also eliminates baking and hero lights to deliver results that are accurate to the ground truth.
The newest RTX cards from Nvidia feature advanced AI systems, which enable AI-powered ray tracing calculations. The cards also have a sophisticated machine learning system that is suitable for simulations at higher resolutions.
In the coming year, we’ll see more ray tracing games for the PC. Until then, there are other ways to achieve a similar effect.
RTX cards have RT cores and traditional shader cores
Ray tracing, or RT, is a technology for rendering photorealistic graphics in real time. To achieve this, a computer must use a number of complex calculations. These calculations depend on the amount of rays, the resolution of the image, and the complexity of the scene. Currently, there are two types of GPUs that perform ray tracing. The first type is a Turing GPU, which includes exotic new tensor cores, and the second is an Ada architecture. Both work together to achieve accelerated ray-tracing performance.
The RTX 2080 Ti has dedicated hardware to handle ray tracing. This is different from previous generation RT cores, which would dish off shader work to SMs. Earlier-generation RT cores were not able to intelligently deal with opacity.
RTX 3080 features a GDDR6X graphics memory with a 320-bit memory interface, delivering 760 GB/s of memory bandwidth. It also boasts a PCIe Gen 5 power connector, which can provide 600 watts of power.
In addition to the RT cores, the Ada architecture has updated Streaming Multiprocessors. These are specialized processors that perform a range of tasks, such as light ray displacement, FP8 inferring, and DLSS 3.
For the tensor cores, Nvidia has developed a new design. The Hopper FP8 Transformer Engine features up to 1.4 petaflops of Tensor processing power. Compared to the previous-generation tensor cores, the fourth-generation version increases tensor computing by five times. Moreover, it removes less important DNN weights.
As a result, the RTX 2080 Ti can run ray tracing at 10-plus Giga Rays per second. Additionally, it has a PCIe Gen 5 power connector, a smaller footprint than the existing PCIe power connectors, and it delivers 600 watts of power. Those specs make it a very powerful card.
Another feature is the Opacity Micromap Engine, which makes ray tracing up to twice as fast. By storing opacity in a micro-mesh, it can efficiently upsample images rendered at lower resolutions.
Other features include a new Displaced Micro-Mesh, which is an extension of the Micro-Mask feature. This allows the RTX GPU to generate micro-meshes on the fly.
Variable rate shading is a clever bit of AI tech in NVIDIA’s RTX cards
Variable Rate Shading (VRS) is a technology that uses the GPU to take advantage of varying amounts of processing power to provide dynamic shading adjustments. It allows for better gaming and VR experiences, and is one of the key features of NVIDIA’s latest ‘RTX’ cards.
The technology isn’t new, though. It’s used by NVidia’s Turing architecture, which was released in August 2018. For a while, it was only available on the company’s GeForce RTX cards. However, this was before AMD announced plans to get into the game. Now, both companies are collaborating on a similar technology.
Using AI to perform certain processes, such as inferencing, can speed up the graphics processing on an RTX card. This can help to produce realistic lightning and better-looking graphical effects.
In addition to ray tracing, the RTX line of graphics cards also includes other interesting tech. Some of the most intriguing features include DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling. DLSS is a form of anti-aliasing that is super-efficient, thanks to a neural network-powered algorithm.
As you can imagine, a lot of work has gone into the RTX cards. But while the tech is impressive, it’s a bit more complicated than just putting more rays on a screen.
The DLSS technology is actually powered by the Neural Graphics Framework, or NGX, which is a set of artificial intelligence tools that Nvidia provides to developers for use in their games. NGX also exposes a variety of AI models to game engines.
Besides a wide range of AI-powered tech, RTX cards can also accelerate ray-tracing. This is important, because accelerated ray-tracing can provide real-time reflections and lightning. By reducing the amount of processing power required, RTX cards can provide better gaming and VR experiences.
While it’s hard to judge how the RTX line will fare against competitors like AMD, it’s clear that the tech is here to stay. Whether it’s AI InPainting or DLSS, RTX cards can deliver the performance boosts that gamers have come to expect. Plus, RTX cards have a unique feature set that makes them stand out from the crowd.
RTX vs GTX
The new NVIDIA RTX cards are based on the Turing architecture. They feature ray tracing cores and Tensor Cores. These features allow accelerated gaming performance.
NVIDIA launched RTX cards in February of this year, and there are two series that they produce. RTX cards are a few hundred dollars more expensive than GTX cards. However, they are more powerful. This means that you’ll be able to play more modern games at 1080p resolution and higher.
RTX cards are a little bit faster than GTX cards. They can cast rays six times faster than other GPUs, which helps improve the quality of shadows in games. RTX cards are able to do this because they do not require all of the shader cores on the GPU. Rather, they use a dedicated ray tracing hardware.
RTX cards are a lot more expensive than GTX cards, but they are a better investment for future-proofing. Their ray tracing capabilities allow users to improve lighting in games and create realistic scenes. In addition, the RTX family includes new technologies that aren’t available in the GTX cards.
The GTX cards also do well in traditional rendering. Unlike RTX cards, however, they don’t support DLSS. DLSS is a deep learning super sampling technique that accelerates gaming performance. It is only used in a handful of games, so it’s not very common.
RTX and GTX cards both have PCIe 3.0 interfaces. However, PCIe 3.0 will likely be phased out in favor of PCIe 4.0. As a result, some of the GTX cards are subject to chip shortages.
Despite the differences, both RTX and GTX cards are still great pieces of hardware. Whether you choose a GTX or RTX card depends on your budget and priorities. If you’re looking for a powerful budget gaming PC, then a GTX card is a great choice. Likewise, if you want a powerful graphics card for eSports, a GTX card is a great option. Ultimately, you’ll find the right card for you if you know what to look for.
Whichever graphics card you decide to buy, make sure to read reviews and benchmarks before you buy. Taking the time to understand the technologies of both the RTX and the GTX cards can help you make a more informed purchase.